Ocean Wave Ceramic Bead

Before I was diagnosed with cancer, I was taking a extension class over at the local junior college in ceramics and while I went to class, I didn't have the energy to do wheel work or handbuilding or other things I normally would do.

So instead I just sat there and made beads.  This is one of the beads I made that semester.  It's shaped like a lentil, has small bead caps, and one side is decorated with this ocean wave motif. I used a needle tool to make this texture.

I just added it to my etsy store yesterday.  Here's the link if you are interested.

Green and Blue Sprig Ceramic Beads

These also came out of the kiln earlier this week.  These would work well in a statement necklace or bracelet.

I haven't used this glaze combination before.  Do you like it?

Pink Two Hole Bead Whistle

I added two holes in this whistle and it works great. The pink with the black underglaze gives this whistle an edgy flavor.


These bead whistles are so much fun to make.  This is the first time I've been able to add more than one sound hole successfully. 


The pitch is high, as would any small body whistle, and the holes just send that sound up even higher. 


Love it!

Terra Cotta Red with White Accents Ceramic Beads

I rubbed white underglaze into these terracotta sprig beads and coated with a clear overglaze.

Fun times!  Each bead is different, no two are exactly alike.

The kiln has been good to me this week, although yesterday when I went out to turn up the temperature, I discovered that it wasn't turned on at all.  I turned it off, jiggled the turning knob and it came on.

I don't know why I didn't notice that it was not on the first time though. I will have to make a note to open it up and have a look at the inner parts and see what was going on with that.

Pink Seed Pod Ceramic Beads

I could hardly wait until this morning to take these out of the kiln. I shaped them a few months ago and agonized on how to glaze them, finally setting upon this delicate pink with the black accents. 

I will sell them individually in my store, and in sets of two or three. Look for them soon.

Bye Bye Artfire

I deleted my items from the Artfire store yesterday and will be adding them to the Etsy store in the coming days.   Artfire was fun to try for a few months. I jumped in at the $5.95 pro price per month. The beads got a lot of views, but no sales.  I dropped to basic after the first of the year. I still got a lot of views but no sales.  Then I got an email saying Artfire was getting rid of the basic accounts and only taking Pro accounts.  So before I lost all my pics and descriptions, I copied them to my computer and deleted them.  I left a message saying I would be at my Etsy store.  I enjoyed being over at Artfire. I always meant to drive more traffic over there but I never seemed to find the time to do it properly. These are some beads that I'll be moving into my Etsy store in the next few days.

I took some beads out of the kiln this morning and put some more beads into the kiln. I'll have to take some photos later in the morning and share them tomorrow or the next day.

Thank for stopping by!

Back to Normal

Last night I sat on the couch and formed beads for the first time since late April.  I've had the shops shut down for the last couple of months while I've been going through chemotherapy and radiation treatments.  The good news is that I am now cancer free and well on my way to recovering my strength again.

In the meantime, I have really missed working in clay.  I had glazed some beads right before my treatments started and this morning I loaded those beads into my small kiln and they are currently firing. 


 Because I finally have enough strength to stand at the line in the post office to mail international packages, I will be re-opening my etsy stores (both beads and pottery) tomorrow (July 22nd).   Thank you for those who logged onto my facebook page and followed my progress and had so many kind comments, and especially thank you for all of you who have prayed for me and continue to pray for my recovery as well. I could never have gotten through the last couple of months without all your prayers.  It's nice to be getting back to normal. It's great to be back. 

This texture was made by sticking each bead multiple times with a very small coffee straw.  I added bead caps to these, too.

The next step was to glaze these black, wipe them down so that the black stayed in the recesses. Then  I glazed with a soft speckled pink.

This is also a style of bead that was in Beads 2011.  I'm trying to get some of these in stock in case anyone would like some.  I still have a lot of styles to glaze, but they are all bisque fired and ready to glaze at this point.

These to These

These are some of the bead shapes that made it into BEADS 2011, the buyer's guide edition in April.  There are three sizes, The papa bead is 22 mm hole to hole and 20 mm wide.   The mama bead is 19 mm hole to hole and 15 mm at its widest and the baby bead is 15 mm hole to hole and 13 mm at the middle.

And here they are in their finished state, just a simple black bead cap and clear glaze to show off their vanilla creamy whiteness.

More Beads to Bisque

Here in North Central Texas the pecan fronds are hanging from the trees, dangling their pollen rich plumes, attempting to make me sneeze anytime I walk past a window. So while I was waiting for my particular pollen season to be over, I spent a couple of days creating these. Now they are dry enough to go into the kiln. In this batch are recreations of some of the beads that made it into BEADS 2011.

There are actually two bowls of beads in this photo. The smaller bowl is on the bottom and holds the beads that will be approx 17-20 mm. The bowl on top holds the smaller beads which will range from 13-17 mm. I'm doing the same style on three sizes of beads, because some jewelry artists prefer bigger beads and some prefer smaller.

The kiln is currently firing and I just turned it up to medium. As I wait to turn it up to high I think about how those pecan fronds don't know that with one big windstorm they are all going to be on the ground and I will be free from sneezing once again!

New Nuggets Design - Finished!

It's a rainy day today in North Central Texas. A mild cold front has moved in and lowered the temperatures out of the 80s into the 60s. That's fine with me because that means the pecan tree out back is not blooming, which means I was not sneezing and rubbing my eyes whilst taking these newbies out of the kiln.

I blogged about initially forming these (click here) then about the glazing process (click here). I put these in the kiln yesterday and here they are this morning, in all their nuggety goodness. Wouldn't you rather have nuggets made out of stoneware clay than chicken? ;)

"May I take your order?"
"Yes, I'd like some stoneware nuggets please, and don't forget the bright blue endcaps!"

What's Cookin' in the Kiln?

Today these nuggets are in the kiln.  I have a demo of how I made these a few posts back (Click here to see post).

Here they are glazed in a four step process. First I brushed on a blue underglaze, which I promptly wiped off with a sponge.  Next I took the same color and reapplied it carefully to the endcap sprig of each bead.  Lastly, I applied a clear glaze.

You know what this means, though, right? Tomorrow I will take photos of what they look like fresh out of the kiln and I will be sure to list a few.  Oh, one more thing: these are being fired to cone 6.

Beads 2011 - My Beads Got Into This Magazine

I have been waiting on eggshells to see if the beads I sent in earlier this year would make it into the 2011 BEADS Buyer's Guide issue and yay ... my beads are on three pages. Oh Happy Day!

I wanted to also put advertising in this issue and I was contacted however I was on my out of town and not able to meet the deadline. Next year for sure.

I scanned the three pages of the magazine and scans are always grainy.  These beads look much better in the magazine.  My beads made it into three sections:

The Floral section (page 17), the Steampunk section (page 48) and the World Beat section (Page 63).

I had a hard time deciding whether to list my beads under my website name (nkpdesigns) or my etsy store bead store name (nkpbeads). In the end, I decided that it was more cohesive to point people to my website and they can easily click on the link to visit the bead store.

My New Toy, ahem, Piece of Equipment

I bought this a couple of weeks ago after going to my pottery guild and having this demo'ed. I had to go and buy an air compressor and a couple of 1/4 inch fittings, but amazingly enough, as easy as Sal made this look, it was easier to utilize than that. This is a wonderful addition to my studio. This first photo shows a simple round tile/coaster/wall hanging/clock ... whatever you want it to be.

When I went to pick this up, Sal said, "Now this tile has two sides, don't forget that."  And I haven't.  The idea is to put a circular plug of clay into the hole, mash it down, smooth it out and voila ... lovely smooth tile.

Then there's my way.  Take pieces of clay, smash it in there, who cares if it is smooth and lovely? After all, there are two sides!  So the top side is smooth, but the bottom side is not.  Why? Because I used pieces of clay.  Next I textured that side with a lava rock.  Then I added clay sprigs, much the same way as I do the beads.

So here is my 5" round whatever.  It's like a big bead, but flat.  Anyway, to watch a real life demo, take this link.  This product is the best piece of pottery equipment I've seen in a long time.

Thank you, Sal, for making ceramics even better!

Take this link to watch a demo on how this is used. Enjoy!
Texas Tiler

Out of the Bisque Fire

These are a few samples of bisque beads that came out of the kiln early Saturday morning.


These are all made from a stoneware clay with little grout, so they are smooth to the touch. 

I have no idea how I will glaze these. Should I go for bright summer colors? Subdued winter colors?  Do I go for glossy or matte? 

Decisions decisions!